Feds Must Follow a Higher Standard

federal employee in Grimm's situation would have to be dumb and blind to fail to protect himself from the ethical trap posed by this case. His business is the public business. Part of his responsibility, therefore, is to be an expert on public perception. With this in mind, he should clearly see the need to decline the invitation.

But the necessary approach to ethics in government goes beyond avoiding wrongdoing, the appearance of wrongdoing and questionable situations. It is founded on the notion that public service is the highest form of service in the secular community. It should be viewed as the practice of democracy with everyday values--an aggregate of all the issues vital to the public, from care of the needy to the defense of the nation. Consequently, its standards must call for the highest quality, most honest, most innovative and most humanitarian service possible.

Federal employees need to understand public service is not a place for punching a clock, putting in time and minimally following orders. That would be more characteristic of a spoils system, in which the public job was presumed to benefit primarily the office-holders and only incidentally the public.

I often remind public servants that they didn't sign a contract; they took an oath. Public servants who are eager to live up to ideals need more than the traditional narrow orientation to ethical codes and regulations. They need better training in the human side of decision-making--examining evidence, identifying relevant facts, and applying values from the different value systems we have developed in our varying roles as employees, spouses, parents and members of communities.

Only then can they be adequately prepared to warn superiors of potential harm to programs, even when that warning would put a career at risk.

Christopher G. Wye is the director of the National Academy of Public Administration's Program for Improving Government Performance in Washington. A former government executive, he managed policy analysis, performance measurement and program evaluation. He writes and conducts forums on public service ethics.